{"id":8815,"date":"2014-04-15T10:06:01","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T17:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=8815"},"modified":"2014-04-15T10:06:01","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T17:06:01","slug":"fuel-seawater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/fuel-seawater\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuel from Seawater"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ancient mariner may have been surrounded by water unfit to drink, but the U. S. Navy sees its ships as surrounded by seawater that could be converted to fuel for its fleet or aircraft.<\/span><\/p>\n

This long-time ambition is possibly being fulfilled by researchers at the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Materials Science and Technology Division<\/a>, who recently flew a radio-controlled model airplane on seawater-derived fuel.<\/p>\n

Dr. Heather Willauer, NRL research chemist, explains, “In close collaboration with the Office of Naval Research P38 Naval Reserve program, NRL has developed a game changing technology for extracting, simultaneously, CO2<\/sub>\u00a0and H2<\/sub>\u00a0from seawater.\u00a0 This is the first time technology of this nature has been demonstrated with the potential for transition, from the laboratory, to full-scale commercial implementation.”\u00a0 The process is able to convert the recovered gases to liquid hydrocarbon fuel.<\/p>\n

\"text\"<\/a>

NRL researchers (l to r) Dr. Jeffrey Baldwin, Dr. Dennis Hardy, Dr. Heather Willauer, and Dr. David Drab (crouched), successfully demonstrate a novel liquid hydrocarbon fuel to power the aircraft’s unmodified two-stroke internal combustion engine. Photo courtesy US Naval Research Laboratory<\/p><\/div>\n

Dr. Willauer\u2019s team recently flew a replica of a WWII P-51 Mustang in the red-tail colors of the Tuskeegee Airmen.\u00a0 The craft\u2019s two-stroke engine was an off-the-shelf, unmodified unit \u2013 just like the ones at the hobby shop.\u00a0 Its \u201cdrop-in\u201d nature means existing infrastructures can potentially make the fuel at sea, possibly using the available nuclear powerplants on aircraft carriers to provide the energy for the seawater conversion.<\/p>\n

The Navy Times<\/i> <\/a>breaks down the steps involved in a simplified way:<\/p>\n

\u201cStep 1:\u00a0A processing plant would extract carbon dioxide from 2.35 billion gallons of water \u2014 enough to fill the 2012 Olympic swimming pool 2,400 times. This water would yield about 11.9 million gallons worth of carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

\"Skid-based<\/a>

Skid-based platform tests potential to scale up processing seawater to make fuel. Photo courtesy U. S. Naval Research Laboratory<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cStep 2:\u00a0Another process will produce hydrogen from ocean water. Through reverse osmosis, fresh water will be extracted from ocean water. The two hydrogen atoms from the freshwater molecules will be separated from the oxygen atom. The hydrogen atoms will be collected while the oxygen atoms will be vented away.<\/p>\n

\u201cStep 3:\u00a0The hydrogen and carbon dioxide from the first two steps will be used in a catalytic conversion process. The end result is water, heat, and, most importantly, synthetic hydrocarbon, or fuel. Theoretically, the process could be tailored to produce any sort of hydrocarbon fuel, not just JP-5, according to the report.<\/p>\n